Received mine today! For the $48 I spent on these, Im quite impressed. Great bass impact and quality and the rest of the spectrum is not to shabby either. Lacks some clarity but for $48 Im not complaining. I think these are a keeper.

So far, for me, Xears customer service has been fairly lacking. I ordered these on April 5th, and picked them up from the post office on April 16th. Half an hour after I picked them up I took them out of the package they came in to check them out quickly before I burned them in.

On first listen I found that the left driver was attenuating at most half of the external sounds compared to the right driver. After a quick inspection I saw that the wood portion of the housing on the left driver wasn't matched up properly to the plastic portion. It was off center a bit and tilted slightly. This caused the metal ring in between the wood and plastic sections to move a little bit from side to side with very little force. When moved to one side of the housing there's a small gap that opens up, which I'm guessing vents the driver to the outside.

I don't know how their quality control is, but I could see how it could be overlooked if the Q/A checks are performed fairly quickly.

After that I was fairly busy and wasn't able to contact them about a replacement until the 22nd. I used their web form on the Support section of their website. I put in all of my information and submitted the completed form. After submitting the form I got a message saying that I'd get a response back within 24 hours. It's been almost a week now, and I haven't gotten a response. So I resubmitted my previous message directly to their support email address tonight in hopes that I get a response from them sometime soon.

I would try and use live chat, but every time that I go to their site their live chat is always offline. I guess that by the time that I'm able to get to live chat they're most likely in bed.

I'm hoping that I'll get a response relatively soon... I'd like to be able to burn them in and try them out.

The set I received has almost exactly the same issue. Likewise, it has been over a week and still no response from their support team. There are definitely QC issues, unfortunately. Now I just wish they would follow up with decent customer service. Do keep us posted as to whether you get a response!

Quote:

Originally Posted by 8xOverMsOctober

So far, for me, Xears customer service has been fairly lacking. I ordered these on April 5th, and picked them up from the post office on April 16th. Half an hour after I picked them up I took them out of the package they came in to check them out quickly before I burned them in.

On first listen I found that the left driver was attenuating at most half of the external sounds compared to the right driver. After a quick inspection I saw that the wood portion of the housing on the left driver wasn't matched up properly to the plastic portion. It was off center a bit and tilted slightly. This caused the metal ring in between the wood and plastic sections to move a little bit from side to side with very little force. When moved to one side of the housing there's a small gap that opens up, which I'm guessing vents the driver to the outside.

I don't know how their quality control is, but I could see how it could be overlooked if the Q/A checks are performed fairly quickly.

After that I was fairly busy and wasn't able to contact them about a replacement until the 22nd. I used their web form on the Support section of their website. I put in all of my information and submitted the completed form. After submitting the form I got a message saying that I'd get a response back within 24 hours. It's been almost a week now, and I haven't gotten a response. So I resubmitted my previous message directly to their support email address tonight in hopes that I get a response from them sometime soon.

I would try and use live chat, but every time that I go to their site their live chat is always offline. I guess that by the time that I'm able to get to live chat they're most likely in bed.

I'm hoping that I'll get a response relatively soon... I'd like to be able to burn them in and try them out.

So far, for me, Xears customer service has been fairly lacking. I ordered these on April 5th, and picked them up from the post office on April 16th. Half an hour after I picked them up I took them out of the package they came in to check them out quickly before I burned them in.

On first listen I found that the left driver was attenuating at most half of the external sounds compared to the right driver. After a quick inspection I saw that the wood portion of the housing on the left driver wasn't matched up properly to the plastic portion. It was off center a bit and tilted slightly. This caused the metal ring in between the wood and plastic sections to move a little bit from side to side with very little force. When moved to one side of the housing there's a small gap that opens up, which I'm guessing vents the driver to the outside.

I don't know how their quality control is, but I could see how it could be overlooked if the Q/A checks are performed fairly quickly.

After that I was fairly busy and wasn't able to contact them about a replacement until the 22nd. I used their web form on the Support section of their website. I put in all of my information and submitted the completed form. After submitting the form I got a message saying that I'd get a response back within 24 hours. It's been almost a week now, and I haven't gotten a response. So I resubmitted my previous message directly to their support email address tonight in hopes that I get a response from them sometime soon.

I would try and use live chat, but every time that I go to their site their live chat is always offline. I guess that by the time that I'm able to get to live chat they're most likely in bed.

I'm hoping that I'll get a response relatively soon... I'd like to be able to burn them in and try them out.

Some pics for reference (the driver on the left is the bad one)

If I recall, the front portionis metal and the ring is part of it so the ring moving independantly seems odd un;ess things have changed. The wood portion does look like it's a poor fit but the isolation problem has to be tip related and not from the case as long as it's at least staying in place. If it like the td100, it's already vented via the cable. If the L ch has more bass, you may have a leak. If it has less, it's fit.

The set I received has almost exactly the same issue. Likewise, it has been over a week and still no response from their support team. There are definitely QC issues, unfortunately. Now I just wish they would follow up with decent customer service. Do keep us posted as to whether you get a response!

That's too bad to hear that your in the same boat that I'm in with these. Waiting around a week or more and not getting a response is a little disconcerting. I did notice that their Live Chat is online right now, but I have a lot to do today, so I won't be able to check it out. I might be able to check it out tomorrow morning at work if there's not a ton going on there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodvibes

If I recall, the front portionis metal and the ring is part of it so the ring moving independantly seems odd un;ess things have changed. The wood portion does look like it's a poor fit but the isolation problem has to be tip related and not from the case as long as it's at least staying in place. If it like the td100, it's already vented via the cable. If the L ch has more bass, you may have a leak. If it has less, it's fit.

It could be metal, it just looked like plastic to me. The problem with these is definitely not a fit issue with the tips. I used a set of Sony Hybrid tips on them that I use on other IEMs as well. It is possible that they could be vented out of the strain relief. It could be venting the area in front of the driver that is made of plastic or metal though, depending on how the driver placement is inside the housing.

I did forget to mention in my other post that after I realized they had this problem I took a thin, flat piece of rubber and wrapped it around the housing so that the plastic/metal section, the ring, and the wood section were all covered by the plastic and tied it off. When testing it like that the attenuation imbalance had disappeared.

Does build quality tend to be questionable with the smaller IEM manufacturers? I'm really enamored with wooden headphones and these are my top choice for my next pair of IEMs, but I'm wondering if Xears follows the Nuforce model of great sounding budget IEMs with durability issues. It's so frustrating to fall in love with the sound of a pair of headphones only to have them inexplicably fail after a few weeks because of a cheap cord.

If you are having trouble with them, chat with Thomas on the site and he will be very helpful. My pair broke and he sent me a new one. However the pair sent were defective and now im getting a pair of their new flagship Nature N3i.

You can get a pair for 25€ plus 8€ shipping using the discount code: KLANGFUZZIS

I personally prefer the sound of the TD100-iii to the much loved Monster Turbine Por Copper. Hopefully the Nature N3i will be an improvement in build quality and sound quality

Quick update - I've just spoken with Thomas over the live chat. Apparently he had mail server problems and so many emails were lost. Moreover, he acknowledges that the recent batch of Xears TD-IIIs have been having left-driver issues. Currently he has agreed to send me a replacement pair and so I will be waiting for those to arrive in the mail.

He could have kept customers better informed regarding the mail server issues, however thumbs up nonetheless for fast and helpful support through his live chat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by quesce

The set I received has almost exactly the same issue. Likewise, it has been over a week and still no response from their support team. There are definitely QC issues, unfortunately. Now I just wish they would follow up with decent customer service. Do keep us posted as to whether you get a response!

That doesn't surprise me. Go on their site and open up a chat with them and tell Thomas about your problem. He will probably tell you to destroy the iem (cut the cable by the housing) and email him a picture as proof with your address and he will send you a replacement

If you are having trouble with them, chat with Thomas on the site and he will be very helpful. My pair broke and he sent me a new one. However the pair sent were defective and now im getting a pair of their new flagship Nature N3i.

You can get a pair for 25€ plus 8€ shipping using the discount code: KLANGFUZZIS

I personally prefer the sound of the TD100-iii to the much loved Monster Turbine Por Copper. Hopefully the Nature N3i will be an improvement in build quality and sound quality

O man, a successor so fast ? I'm so impressed with the sound quality of the td iii blackwood, this deal is all too tempting .......